That's not a Mac, this is a...: This week, I did something I haven't done in more than six months. I spent time using two different operating systems that were both completely alien to me. So what strange, unfamiliar systems were they? Jaguar and MacOS 9, of course. The former was on a client's iMac, and the latter was at a local school. After having spent the past half-year using the near-perfect Panther interface, I found Jaguar and OS 9 just lacking in usability, in comparison.
Not lacking on the level of, say, Windows, mind you. But nonetheless, I hated using them both. Jaguar and MacOS 9 aren't ridiculously bad interfaces, like with Windows. They're not bad at all. Never were. They just don't provide the user experience that Panther does. Spending time with the old systems pried my eyes open as to just how far we've come in the past few years, and how as things keep getting even better, we manage to keep getting even pickier when it comes to what we'll accept as Mac users. There's nothing wrong with holding the Mac to a higher standard; in fact, it's essential to ensuring that things keep getting even better. But we need to make sure we remember that we're doing so, while we're doing it.
Educators rule! If you haven't seen it by now, Mac Using Educators has launched this week, and its name says it all: it's a site for Mac-using educators. So far, we're a five-man writing team, looking to grow of course, and the content you'll find on the site ranges from how to get the most out of your school's Macs, to how to keep your school's Macs running, to how to keep your school's Macs period. So far, the new site has been mentioned on MacMinute, LowEndMac, and MacSurfer, and we're hoping to get the attention of Mac-using educators everywhere. By virtue of being a Mac user, you might find the site of interest, even if you're not an educator. After all, it's everyone's future we're talking about.
Zoom this: It turns out I've been charged with selecting a digital camera for a relative, and after poking around on the web this evening, I'm more than a little depressed at the direction in which the digital camera market has turned. Now that we've had time to see cameras with AA batteries get to market and turn out to be a complete joke of a product, you'd think they'd have just disappeared off the market by now. Buying a camera that uses AA batteries (whether they're "rechargeable" or not) commits you to a life of changing batteries about every three minutes, rarely ever getting to use your own LCD screen for fear of killing your batteries even more quickly, and you're going to spend your whole life savings on AA batteries over the life of the product.
Alright, enough ranting about one of the stupidest product decisions in the history of consumer electronics. Here's my criteria: legitimate (non-AA) lithium rechargeable battery, an optical zoom (I think we all know by know that digital zoom equals no zoom), and a price of no more than $150. Megapixels aren't particularly important (they're about as relevant to a camera as Megahertz is to a computer), and it doesn't really matter which of the many kinds of removable memory cards it uses, as long as it's upgradable. Oh, and it obviously must come with a USB port that will allow the camera to be connected directly to the computer (absolutely none of that "card reader" nonsense or "docking station" crap). Whatever software it comes with is of no relevance, as iPhoto 4 is what will be used anyway. Fortunately, about 95% of all USB digital cameras are iPhoto-compatible, meaning that at least one part of this whole saga is easy.
If you happen to know of a particular camera model (any name brand, doesn't matter) that fits all of the above criteria and doesn't go one penny above $150, I'd appreciate it greatly if you could give me a heads-up. It doesn't matter whether it's available only online, or only at a retail store that I can drive to. Thanks in advance, if you've got anything. But please don't write in to tell me that Megapixels are important (they're not), that AA batteries make for some kind of acceptable camera experience (they don't), or that a digital zoom is worth anything (it isn't).
Bill buys a new Mac update: For those who read all eight parts of the "Bill buys a new Mac" series and are wondering whether my decision to buy a used Titanium G4 PowerBook turned out to be the right one. Well, after a few weeks, I can tell you that the answer is a resounding "yes" on all counts. I never realized how much I missed mobility until I got it back. It's the kind of thing you don't realize until you find yourself sitting in a sports bar sometime after midnight, two hundred miles from home, typing an article on your laptop. I might have looked kinda funny walking in there with an eMac.
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